wazika.net

I am done with most everything I wanted to do today so I thought I would throw up a post. There was a time when it was the first thing in my head to do, and now I feel like I have to prod myself to do it. Sad.

The weekend was good and wanted more of it. Just another day to just recover from it. It’s weird but sometimes I feel like the week doesn’t really start until Wednesday. Friday is usually fast and Tim is home after work. Then there are the two days of weekend which are always jam packed with stuff (it seems) followed by Monday where we recover slightly and then Tuesday Tim is working from home and we have ho-chunk lessons which make the day extra long. After that is three days to fill with everyday chid rearing chores. It also sucks that it has been mostly rain and cold filled days which seem to blur everything together. Funny considering that I am going to say the same thing about glorious days in the future.

Late Thursday night our friend Lowen had her baby. Friday it was crappy out and the kids were crabby (they seem to have big cases of spring fever, and so I have been taking them out to the backyard to play even when the weather isn’t that great). After long naps I packed them in the car, stopped at Woodmans quick to pick up a bouquet of flowers. It should have been a quick in and out, but letting the girls pick the flowers makes it a half an hour excursion. Finally after I stopped Neeners from jumping on a stem of flowers, while the flower lady was there (embarrassing!) I got Morella to narrow it down too a stem of old looking but pink carnations and a dozen roses. I pushed for the roses and won. They were all different colors and actually good quality. Then we headed over to the hospital to visit Lowen, Jason and the new baby. After that we left to pick up Tim and head over to Glass Nickel for pizza with our friend Oliver. The girls were well behaved for most of it, but the party always ends with Neeners wanting to get down and run around — usually screaming.

Saturday we got up, consumed lots of coffee and breakfast and went to America’s Best Flowers in Cottage Grove for their Easter Egg hunt. It is great because it is indoors and continuous. They scatter plastic eggs everywhere and just keep replenishing them as the event goes on. It is free and at the end you exchange your eggs for a small bag of candy and a visit with a real live bunny and chicken. The girls had a blast, especially since they met up with two of their buds – Kian and Noah.

Afterwards we came home and played outside for a while until Neeners was ready for her nap (oh and we ate lunch). Morella continued to play outside until we were tired of it and came in. Then around 5, Neeners was still sleeping and I took Morella to go with me to the MATC powwow. I arrived just in time for dinner (not a coincidence) and we ate heartily. Morella was so well behaved and said to me “I am watching people Mommy.” I told her that it was actually something fun to do and that I liked to watch people too.

Then we went to the powwow and everyone was getting ready for grand entry. I ran into my friend Ron from college and we chatted for awhile. Then I took Morella to look at the vendors but she was tired and wanted to be carried. I wanted her to see some of the dancing so I told her we would sit down far away from the loud speakers and watch the beginning of grand entry. As we were waiting I busted out a Dr. Pepper I had gotten from the dinner and shared it while watching from the bleachers. It was Morella’s first Dr. Pepper ever and I noticed (but didn’t fully register why) that she seemed to gain some extra energy and wanted to stay longer. We left after about a half an hour to go home.

Once we got home Morella ran around the house like a nut and then went with Tim to Best Buy to replace our old laptop (the old one’s battery and cord are dead, Tim is going to donate it). He said that Morella was a nut job and running on all cylinders. It then occurred to me what he meant when we got home and saw Morella with the half empty can of Dr. Pepper.

“Is that a Dr. Pepper?” he asked. I said “Yeah, what of it?”

Well, I guess Dr. Pepper has caffeine in it, and now Morellla has had her first full experience with caffeine. Whoops! She went to bed at 9 without a fuss though. Passed right out.

Sunday we got up and the girls found their Easter baskets sitting in the middle of the living room after about a half an hour. Neeners first noticed it, and since Morella must do everything Neeners does, investigated too. They took apart Morella’s basket one by one and then moved onto to Neeners where Morella commented on all the things that she would have to share. Odd, that there were no sharing comments when Morella’s basket was the object of investigation.

They were super happy with their baskets that I had filled with lots of stuff collected over the year and from last year’s easter clearance. For a big present I got Morella Tiana from the Frog Princess and Neeners got the Tangled doll, thus completing our Disney Princess little figurine collection…and then some. I took shower and then while the girls were taking a bath I headed to Woodmans too get stuff for Easter dinner at Mark and Erica’s in Milwaukee.

We made mini pigs in a blanket, cut up fresh pineapple and raspberries and easter pillsbury cookies. We arrived in plenty of time for Tim’s dad to baptize our niece, living in france over Skype. Incredible, huh? Then the girls decorated paper bag baskets, hunted for easter eggs, ate a lot of food, and ran around like a pack of wild kids (11 in total). The girls got a bounty of easter goodies from Aunts, Uncles, grandparents, grandparents in law, etc.

Monday we went to the red park for a playdate after a long morning of getting crabby girls ready (mostly Neeners), followed by another embarrassing trip to Woodmans that had to be cut short because Neeners threw a massive tantrum. People were coming around from other aisles to look at the girl screaming her fool head off. Got home and the girls took long naps (thank god) which gave me a chance to write, read and make dinner for ourselves and Lowen/Jason. Tim came home and I left to drop off the food while they started dinner and we finished the night sitting in our bed coloring in the new princess and my little pony coloring books. It is one of girl’s favorite things to do to unwind.

Today was a rain day and so I let the girls make a massive mess playing with water in the bathroom sink while I cleaned the house, organized toys and searched for the other missing princesses. Tim made lunch and dinner (woo!), everyone took a nap, and we had a pretty good ho chunk lesson at Cecil and Ranada’s house (the girls love it there). Came home, and I occupied the girls with finger painting while Tim made a spaghetti dinner. When they were done making a huge mess, destroying the bathroom in cleaning up, changing them for the third time today, cleaning up the bathroom for the second time….we ate, then played Don’t Break the Ice, Gone Fishing, colored and then read books before putting them into bed. Neeners usually goes down well, and tonight Morella eventually went down around 9:30.

Ugh I hope I get sleep tonight. Neeners was up all last night. I gave her tylenol around 4 and she was still up at 7:30 with a massive tantrum about the door and me not following her out to the living to play. Seriously kid. Is this making up for not having colic? GAH!

All in all it was a great easter weekend. Tim and I have been playing Borderlands on the xbox in our free time after the kids are in bed and we are done with our chores. Speaking of which, he just said he is ready now. I love the change of pace in having something fun to do with Tim.

No not for us…thank goodness. I am quite satisfied with my two little ones. You know how people talk about how they could never imagine sharing they profound love they have for one kid … to two….I never had that problem. But I do have that problem when I think about going from two to three. I like having my older kid who I have special shared memories with it, and shake our heads when we refer to “the baby.” And then I have Neeners, my baby.

So yesterday our good friend Lowen had her much anticipated baby and we all went over to visit her at the hospital. Morella held baby Soren, and Neeners threw a tantrum about being told how to to hold the baby … and so never did hold the baby. She wanted to do it standing up. He was adorable.

Lowen at 40 Weeks 4 Days. We did have plans to hang out on Thursday but the girls took massive naps after their gymnastics gym thing and ruined those plans. Oh well. We will have two months of glorious hanging out in summer.

Morella with as close as she is going to get to a new baby brother, Soren. This is one of the only shots where she is actually looking at the baby as opposed to the TV. She will watch any TV she get no matter what it is.

Now we are off to easter egg hunt.

I was getting Morella ready for bed and she asked for some lotion. She went and got it off her dresser by standing on a little chair next to it “To help me get my lotion”. She put the lotion on her leg and hip, and told me about how it was itchy. I said “Yeah, winter is a dry season. Soon it will be summer and we won’t need to put lotion on as much.” She nodded and we continued with her bedtime routine.

An hour later, after my girl should be sleeping.

“Mommy. I need lotion. There is still a little bit of snow and ice outside and I am getting a little itchy. I need lotion here (points to leg) and here (points to arm). ”

I get the lotion and apply. I had to give it to the girl, she sure as heck thinks of very compelling argument to extend her bedtime.

Look at that, it has been over a week since my last post. Shame! Ugh. I have a myriad of excuses, but that is what they all are, just excuses. If I was really a committed individual I would be finding time in the nooks and crannies of the day to write and post. Instead I have been using that time to do push ups, play Borderlands with Tim, watch movies, play on the internet and…well you get the picture. I only have a few hours each day to really call my own since dual naptimes are a thing of the past. When it does happen I usually take a quick nap too because I end up staying up so late grasping that precious “me time.” I guess I could turn on the TV while Neeners naps so that Morella would occupy herself, but I really prefer her to occupy herself during that quiet time and not watch TV. So a lot of the time I am doing something with her, that isn’t around a computer.

Oh and if I do use the Ipad, the girls want to play on it. Really, I think they use it as much as I do. I like the idea of them learning how to use technology so it’s not something I want to discourage, especially since use on the Ipad is monitored (as in we have to be sitting right there).

This weather has been the pits too! The other day is was snowing, sleeting, hailing, thundering and lightening all in one go. The only living creatures who liked it were the ducks, who came to visit us and eat the bread crumbs we had tossed out in the front yard. The bread crumbs are the cut off ends of the sandwiches and pieces of bread that the children won’t eat. Might as well use them to lure in wild life that we can gawk at through our front window. Today, however, it is sunny. It was sunny a couple days ago amidst the week of doom and gloom, but it was cold so it was a false comfort. It looks like 50 today. I guess I can do that. There is an open gym at a gymnastics thing this morning with a girl friend of Morella’s that is moving away come July, so I think we might go to that. A little on the pricey side, but it could be fun for a change of pace. Especially since summer is right around the corner (keep telling that myself to boost morale) and we won’t be inside for a frog’s age.

Notable things done in the last two weeks:

–My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult at the Inferno on a Wednesday. Hung out with folks in the back for most of it and went up front at the end for the popular songs after making spur of the moment ear plugs from a chewed on napkin for my poor eardrums.

–Glass Fusing work shop at Fired Up with a bunch of lady friends

–Book club to discuss Yellow Raft on Blue Water at Bluephies

–Couple date night with Jim and Jill at the Bayou followed by drinks at the Come Back Inn

–Fairy House building, park/wagon walk

–Trip to Toys are Us and Costco with Lowen, before she has her baby

And now some pictures to make the long wait worth while.

Morella eating a giant sundae on our Mommy/Hinu day out.

Taking the babies, take their babies out for a walk.

Random event – police offer pulls overs and asked if Morella/Neeners want a sticker and then poses for a photo.

I had a pretty glorious Saturday two weekends ago. I went to Kids in the Rotunda without kids and then did some shopping in fun little State Street stores…without kids. I had such a wonderful time browsing and looking at things. Ahh it was nice to be in my own head space for so long. On the way home I ran into Snow White and we had high tea in her castle and she was very sorry to hear that Morella wasn’t able to make it. Next time…

Morella said she wanted to play with her buds Leta and Mina, and so we headed over there for an afternoon romp in the yard. Morella was in big kid heaven.

My glass fusing projects before they are melted down. I got a call last night that they are ready to pick up, so I am going to do that this afternoon.

Morella and her fairy house.

My first fairy house of the year. I wonder how it stood up against the elements/animals/other kids at the blue park.

Morella did a little face painting of her own the other day while Neeners napped.

Morella and Neeners got their first studio portrait taken on what was one of the worst Friday’s I have had in a long time. The Sears appointment was pushed back from 11 t0 11:40. Then I had to make good on a promise of ice cream afterward so we went to the food court to get it from McDonald’s. The food court had exploded with a billion teenagers there on a field trips (lunch at the food court) and …. my fucking tights that I had rediscovered the night before, fell down to almost my knees and took my underwear with them! Oh my …. it was just a very mortifying experience, that I could do little about because I was carrying Neeners, holding Morella’s hand, carrying all of our coats and diaper bag and was wearing a dress. After they ate, I shuffled to the bathroom with kids in hand and tore the tights off. We left the mall and stopped at Dean on the way home to pick up Neeners new booger prescription (the last one didn’t work) — and it is the most vile tasting/looking stuff ever. We have to do some serious bribing to get her to take it. Then we get home after almost getting blown over by the windstorm in a short dress with no tights….to find that the house smelled … poopy. Turns out the dog had crapped all over his kennel with diarrhea. I sent him outside, tossed everything in the kennel, cleaned it, gave the dog it’s first bath in the house, then put the girls to bed by 3:15.

Ugh, just thinking of it gives me the shivers.

Today we had a leisurely start to the day. We had a breakfast the girls barely touched, I cleaned up around the house and even vacuumed. I swear, the girls love having free and open space in the living room, and yet they always mess it up. I guess it is like having a clean canvass, it just begs to be cluttered. But as of right now, it is still clean.

Morella is having a hard time sleeping tonight. Not because she keeps getting up with a billion requests and comments, but because she is sleepwalking and dreaming. I think it is because she is exhausted from all the hours we have been spending outside and her going full tilt. She usually crashes around 3-4 in the afternoon, but today I told her I didn’t want her to sleep and tried to do enough interesting things to keep her up. I just didn’t want to deal with another 10:15 bedtime. So when we put them to bed at 7:45 tonight, she was out like a light. Neeners has started to do this thing where she will nurse and then start tossing and turning and being a little acrobat. So I just put her into bed awake, like you should, so that they can put themselves to sleep. Hurray that is finally doing that…now if she could just sleep through the whole night I would feel more comfortable about putting her in her own bed in Morella’s room. I wish I knew a good way of making them share a room without everyone losing a weeks worth of decent sleep and shedding a gallon of tears.

First maybe we will talk up her sharing a room for a month. Do the whole count down and talk about how exciting it will be. Then one day, just suck it up and do it. Another part of me just wants to do it, because I am so stuck in a rut with raising little ones that extensive talking and explaining things to them is about effective as talking to my cats. But that isn’t fair to Morella. She knows now. She can understand, but i don’t know if Neeners will. Also, Neeners goes to sleep when we put her down. If Morella is doing her up all night shenanigans then will Neeners stay asleep? What am i going to do when she wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to nurse? Even though I know she is old enough to just cry it out and will most likely be fine in a day or two. The few times we have gone to bed super late she will wake up on cue and cry for about a minute before going back to sleep. I am concerned that it will just wake up Morella and blah blah blah blah.

I would like my room back. I would like for her to get used to sharing a room with Morella to simplify bedtime., all before she is two so that it will be easier. In a perfect world, Neeners would just sleep through the night and Morella would go to sleep when she should. Right? Also, that Neeners won’t mind the big difference in sleep conditions — in that Neeners like a dark quiet room, and Morella likes a noise machine, a night light and for the door to be open a crack.

How did this turn into a post about sleep woes? Sheesh. Oh and what about naps? Neeners still takes a nap every day and Morella does about 40% of the time….

Anyway. So we went to Elmside Circle Park and had a picnic and Morella made a friend with a 4 year old girl (okay, she made friends with Morella) who I think was a religious homeschooled kid. Neeners just sort of followed them around like a kid in a pack. The nice thing about Elmside Circle Park is that they have a horse carousel merry go round that the kids just adore. Morella, her friend Leo, Neeners and the 4 year old Mary (like the mother of jesus, and her brother Philip the saint) and several other kids we see around played on it forever. I did try Neeners in a swing — she locked her hands on the chains and cried. Poor kid. Swings are fun! She also wouldn’t go past the second step on the jungle gym up to the bridge. Finally it was nap time I had to pry the kids off the horses and away from Mary her new BFF. Morella told me several times that she wanted Mary to come over and play in our backyard. I said maybe.

We came home. Neeners took a short nap, and then we headed out to the post office where the mail carriers work to send some forms, and then to the Red Park for the first time this year. The kids didn’t leave my side until they saw their friend Hannah. After about 40 minutes we came home and they played in the backyard. I forgot to mention I packed a picnic dinner too of sandwich, raisins and an apple with strawberry milk (homemade).

After the girls went to bed I watched a new episode of How I Met Your Mother and then Year One.

I should go to bed now. I wish I could get done all the things I want to get done, but then again and very grateful for the time that I do have with my family and for what does get done. If that makes any sense.

Tomorrow is probably park playing with Caleb, Auggie and Leo and then hanging out around the house. Oh Morella and I baked some oatmeal raisin cookies, which the girls didn’t like. But they like the batter…how does that work? Morella is getting so good at baking, measuring, pouring, stirring, etc. Oh and I signed her up for a 3 year old soccer league she is going to be in with her buddies. She is the only girl. I said she was the token girl and Tim pointed out that she isn’t like the regular girls you see on TV or in books because she isn’t a tomboy. She is a girls girl, who isn’t afraid to get dirty. This should be an interesting summer.

It was 80 ish today and it was pure awesome. We had a taste of summer and I loved and relished every second of it. I dressed the girls in summer dresses, with no pants and let them loose in the backyard barefoot. We spent all morning outside after eating Tim’s french toast, and had a lunch of grill leftovers from last night. We sat in lawn chairs, drinking our coffee and doing our respective things while the girls wandered around, cooked mud pies, played in the sandbox, on the slide, etc.

After a long morning outside Morella announced she needed to go inside for a little break around 1:30. I agreed since Neeners was ready for her nap too. They both took a dual nap that lasted about 3 hours while I read, studied ho-chunk, played Words with Friends and relaxed. Tim meanwhile took his first real bike ride of the season and cleaned up the backyard a bit. After they got up, we ended up outside in the front blowing bubbles and met the next door neighbor’s new grandson (age 7 mo). Then we went to the back and played some more while waiting for the big storms to arrive. Around 6, I came in and made a dinner of mac and cheese with leftover grilled hamburger and hot dog, and steamed peas.

Dinner complete we played in the house a bit and then went to Woodman’s for the weeks grocery shopping. Now we have food. Yeah!

Tomorrow morning is Morellla’s playdate tea party reschedule. I was going to make some muffins or cupcakes or something but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. I will probably just bring some snacks instead and dress up clothes. Sometimes my ideas are bigger than my ambition.

Overall, it was an absolutely wonderful day and I loved every minute of it, especially since it was with my family.

I had to cancel a tea party I had set up for Morella with her friend Bree last night. It has been rescheduled for Monday morning at 10:00. To say that Morella is excited about having tea with another live, little girl is an understatement. The girl is thrilled and can’t wait. I was thinking we would also bake up some mini cupcakes and bring them along with some frosting and sprinkles and the girls can decorate them before eating them. Anyway, Neeners ruined that party for today — which would have been perfect because it is rainy and rather gloomy out there.

Yesterday morning I took Neeners to to the doctor and handed over $30 bucks for them to confirm that she did indeed have a sinus infection and a cold on top of it. I then paid another $10 bucks for antibiotics. I should start a spread sheet with medical payments. I never had to do that before because the out of pocket stuff was like less than $40 a year. Now one simple appointment is at least $30. I can claim that stuff on my taxes yo!

Neeners has had three doses of the antibiotic and the change is amazing. She has spent most of the morning playing independently or with Morella and has only one or two meltdowns compared to the numerous ones I had to deal with every hour for the last two freaking weeks. Even though she thick snot pouring out of her nose, she seems in such better spirits than she has been for ages. The problem with sinus infections, is that unless they can talk, you don’t know you have one for a couple of weeks. At least we know now and spring is right around the corner, so close I can almost taste it…and the sinus infections should go away until next year. Hopefully Neeners will have outgrown the frequency of them by then.

We are inside again today and just sort of puttering around. Morella was up until 10:15 last night watching a movie with me – My One and Only. The movie was – eh, but it was something that I could watch while I little girl defied her bedtime, got some nails painted sparkely and had quality time with Mom. She had taken a pretty big 3 hour nap that stretched to 5:15, so I knew there was little chance of her even going to bed until at 9:00 at the earliest. Neeners herself went down at 8:30. Late night bedtimes suck in that once they do go to bed, I have so little time left to myself that I end up staying up too late trying to cram in free time. Then I get stretches of time like this, right now, where I can write a post while Morella sings about plastic animals, and Neeners plays along side her.

For lunch I made the girls their favorites — a strawberry cream cheese sandwich for Morella with the crust cut off, and a Nutella sandwich and slice of summer sausage for Neeners. I had a left over Milo’s sandwich and two slices of summer sausage. I feel like baking something for this afternoon, but I don’t know what and I keep losing interest for staying in the kitchen. Besides it is almost time for take two of trying to get Neeners to nap. Before the sandwiches I had made them a fruit salad and let them work on that for about an hour before offering the sandwiches. Sort of like a snack table in the living room on the hard wood floors (on a table of course). Get a piece as you walk by and play.

I found Neener’s baby book, but I didn’t find her journal. Hm. Gotta keep looking, but I did fill in two pages of info, even if I haven’t put in photos yet. That is always the hard part. I can tell how valuable it will be to do that though because Morella loves to look at her baby book — which is about 1/2 completed.

Today we went to Happy Bambino with a friend to play. I ended up getting a hardy paper bird to add to the kitchen mobiles that we are working on and some decent chocolate. After that we looked at the Craft store and left after a few minutes because there was no way I could let Neeners down in that joint. I promised Morella I would take her there tomorrow to look “at the pretty things” with “no neeners”. After that we had lunch at Crema before heading home for naps. Neeners went down easily but I had to force Morella into mandatory quiet time because she was melting down left and right. I said she had to be in her bed for 15 minutes, she howled for about 5 before passing out. That isn’t a tactic I can normally use because if she doesn’t want to take a nap, then she won’t. She really was tired. I did manage to spend some quality time with her by making muffins with a strawberry hidden inside. I measure all the ingredients, put out a bowl and she mixes and pours it all by herself. Then I had her dip strawberries in honey and sugar before putting them in. She was very proud of the 6 muffins we made and wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t eat them all so that she could share them with friends.

Evening was okay. I made a huge pot of goulash and then we went to Woodmans for a fruit, vegetable, other neccessity run. This time I let them pick out their own bread. Morella got a Sara Lee whole grain white bread and Neeners got some italian sliced bread. Minutes later she discovered frosted animal cookies and wouldn’t part with them until we were at home and I opened them. When I offered to open them for her she started jumping for joy. Ha ha, that kid. Bedtime was fairly painless, except for Morella getting up for various reasons for about an hour afterward. The last time I checked in on her she was finishing looking at a new book she discovered in her room. It was a Strawberry Shortcake treasury. I introduced the concept of chapter books to her tonight and read one of the stories. She is looking forward to tomorrow’s story.

Morella. She is going through some kind of developmental growth spurt I think and having a hard time of it. I told Tim this weekend that we need to make some special time to spend with her one on one. So tomorrow’s trip to the craft store (a store that is made up of rented spaces by crafters selling their wares) is an attempt to do that. I will do it while Neeners is napping and Tim is working from home. I just have to remember that the most important thing I can do to help her navigate the world of deeper questions, feelings and thoughts is to just be there for her and spend time with her.

The other day it was late and she was exhausted. I took her to my room to color on my bed and she was having a good time for about 5 minutes before Neeners came in and crashed the party. We all colored for awhile but she was into the zone and didn’t want to get ready for bed. I gave her a time warning and when it came time she got super angry and hit me with force and purpose. Of course it didn’t hurt, but that is beside the point. She got an instant time out. She knew why and she howled about it for the full three minutes. I went in and got her afterward, put her jammies on, hugged, kissed and tucked her into bed. After prayers and as I was turning out the light she said “I having three crabby days. I just really crabby.” It was clear she was struggling with why she felt crabby so fast and sudden. I told her “It is okay, you are just really tired and will feel better after you get some sleep.”

It was just so obvious to me at that moment that this was her first real attempt at a heartfelt apology. No “sorry!” followed by a hug to get out of a jam, but a real, honest to god apology. She was trying to figure out and explain her actions to me. Ugh, it just tugs at my heart strings. The real job of parenting is beginning. My number one concern is no longer that she just lives from day to day, but now we start the hard work of nurturing, molding and mentoring.

Lastly, I thought of a whole bunch more words that Neeners uses in her vocabulary. Let’s look at the whole list…

Da-Dee, Momma, Nani, Weh Wah, why, woof, chocolate, peaches, bees, yes, no, kitty, hello, hi, boots, butt, brush, ball, baby, bup, bye, sorry, cheese, uh oh, mine, stop, this, pee and thank you.

I can’t find Neeners baby book and journal. I have been inspired to work on them but for the life of me, I can’t find them anywhere. I know they are together because I had this hair brained idea that I was going to put them together, out of the room so that I would be able to work on them without having to sneak into my room to get them. What an awful idea. Sigh. Tim said it will come up … just like the missing pony Scootaloo — it will show up. Just keep looking a little bit every day. Keep your eyes out and it will show up.

So since days have passed without me finding it and discovering Morella’s journal underneath the couch last week while I was looking for Neeners missing purple heart shoe (which I finally found today — hurray!). I wrote in Morella’s journal the other day and discovered the last entry was in the middle of August. This journal, well these journals, are the first of what I hope are many, in which I write to the girls. Sort of direct letters from me, sometimes Tim to the girls about what is going on, life and what they are like. I just know that poor Neeners journal is so neglected and it’s bugging me to bits that I haven’t written anything in awhile. So instead of starting a new journal and working on being patient, I will just write her letter here and then print it out and tape in later. I guess there is a win win here. Right?

———–
April 3rd, 2011

Neeners, my sweet darling little Neeners, in a couple of days you will be 20 months old, and two weeks after that you will be as old as Morella was when you entered our life. When I think back to that time I think about how Morella seemed like such a big girl to me, but you are living proof that there is still quite a bit of baby left in a 20 month old.

At your 15 month appointment you were 22 pounds and 31 inches long. I don’t think you are much more than that at this point. Maybe an extra pound and taller. You are in 18-24 month clothing, though I have you in some 2T clothes because they have hand me downs washed to a smaller size. You are a size 6 shoe and comfortable wearing hard soled shoes now. It helps that you started walking when you were 12 months old, and summer is right around the corner when I know the only way to get shoes on you will be to nail them on. I am looking forward to this summer when you will get to fully experience summer and all the awesome things it has to offer. Already your sister has a running list of the great things we are going to do.

Speaking of your sister, your relationship is finally blooming. It started at the end of January and is going strong. I think you just needed to be old enough, mature enough to interact with Morella. I can see that you are going to be awesome friends — though I worried a little bit about it for the first .. oh say year. When you are getting a great treat like chocolate, candy or dinner you will start calling for Morella to come and join you and not miss a moment. It is so adorable how you will say “Weh wah! Weh Wah!” and in fact you even said chocolate a couple of times. You play chase. I know that you are guilty of taking something from Morella when I see you running full speed ahead with your hand gripping something and a sobbing, screaming Morella following after.

You can understand quite a bit of language, and a handful of Ho-Chunk, and you are starting to pick up language faster. Two days ago you I was shocked to hear an echo of the ever present “Why”. I turned around and asked you to say ‘Why’ and you repeated it perfectly. Now when I get the barrage of “why’s” from Morella, I also get them from you. Other words: Da-Dee, Momma, Nani, Weh Wah, why, woof, chocolate, peaches, bees, yes, no, kitty

Favorite toys: My Little Pony – a orange will funny yellow hair you call Peaches. A small Little People kitty, small Princess figurines, horses, a pink cat stuffie, occasional puppy stuffies, markers, water, paint, food, rough housing with your sister, standing on Daddy’s head and saying “da!”, doing flips, jumping, dancing, running

Favorite foods: frosting, candy, soda, apples, marshmallow mateys, nutella sandwiches, chocolate, pasta, yogurt…you are willing to try almost anything but you don’t usually eat a lot. Instead you prefer, it seems, to get most of your calories from nursing. If you had to list your top things favorite things in the world, it would be 1. nursing, 2. your family and 3. music.

You are obsessed and scared by “bees” – which is really any bug. Exactly like Morella, except you are a little more worried about it. That is going to make this summer fun. You point out Daddy’s tattoos and the framed insect postage stamps hanging near our bed, and any other bugs that you see in art, photos or lint. You are also afraid of heights and you hate swinging.

You are so active and full of life and adventurous.
You laugh when someone (including yourself) farts or burps.
You play with my necklace and caress while nursing.
You are still in our room, sleeping in your crib but still wake up 2-3 times a night. We are looking to transition you to share a room with Morella by your 2nd birthday — only four months away.
You love to read books and be read too.
You love Ring Around the Rosie, my Ipad, typing, nodding in agreement, baking, washing the dishes and climbing stairs (but haven’t gotten the trick of getting down them by yourself).

————-

It’s a free flowing project, I will probably add more later after I print out what I have. As for now, I should probably think about heading to bed soon. Today we went to Milwaukee to attend the baptism of the newest nephew Canaan. We got back around 4 and the girls had an hour or so of quiet time before we watched a movie on TV, had a dinner of canned chop suey and rice (how did I ever think that stuff was delicious?). I looked for Neeners book and a set of sheets that I remembered I had gotten at door busters sales last Thanksgiving last night. I found them and changed the sheets, put the girls to bed and am now watching Eat, Love and Pray while writing. While I can’t really identify with being rich enough to go and travel the world for a year –it is a far more entertaining movie than the drivel that I have seen the past couple of days – Cry of the Owl, and Things You Can Tell By Looking At Her. Ugh ugh ugh.

April is a new start. Spring. A fresh sheet of paper. I found Neeners shoe, I figured out how to pay the parking ticket after having lost the physical ticket, I put together two collage photo frame things, a mini photo book for Morella, I updated Morella’s journal, I have written every day for a week, tomorrow I will be up to 35 pushups, I have a bottle cap project in progress….things are looking well for a change.

Two Phone Photos

Lowen, Morella, Neeners and her ridiculous car at Ihop

Morella, Eden and Neeners watching the great and wonderful Uncle Mark perform magic tricks after Canaan’s baptism.